


Project W.H.O

by Suzanne_Ely



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-15
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-17 20:48:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12373764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suzanne_Ely/pseuds/Suzanne_Ely
Summary: Picking up a time and space disturbance coming from Earth, the Doctor investigates and discovers the existence of the Framework. Fearing the worse for humanity, he manages to insert himself in it and ends up as a caretaker in the school where Phil Coulson is teaching history. Things take a new turn in the virtual reality with the Time Lord teaming up with S.H.I.E.L.D against Hydra.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> ** Please note that this story contains spoilers for Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Season 4.  
> *** Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters of the story. They belong to their rightfull owners. This story is written for fun!

The music stopped, leaving the familiar humming free to be heard again. The Doctor dropped his guitar, gently putting it on the floor, against one of the shelving units from this area. He quickly walked down the stairs to reach the main console. His attention had been caught earlier by an insisting purple light that wouldn’t stop bleeping.

  
Unwilling to stop his riff, the Doctor didn’t really care about it at first and kept playing (loudly) until he eventually remembered what the purple light stood for. There was an abnormality in the space time continuum. Something or someone was influencing it in a very bad way. So bad in fact, that Time Lords were required to intervene, no questions asked. Restoring and maintaining the space time continuum became the prime directive the minute the purple light happened.

  
The Doctor flipped a few levers and scanned the area to pinpoint the origin of the abnormality, frowning when he got the result.  
“This can’t be,” he whispered. “Not Earth again.”

  
What was it with this planet that everyone would always invade, enslave or destroy it? It wasn’t the richest planet in the universe, the various species inhabiting it weren’t that clever (save for ants, bees and cats) and mankind was just making a few interesting steps towards technology, providing that they wouldn’t blow their own planet in the process.

  
Studying the data, the Doctor discovered a few alarming facts. First, Earthlings seemed to have progressed a great deal since its last visit, which was technically impossible. He had a pretty good idea about Earth’s future and the artificial network he was seeing on his scanner was not part of it. Something had happened and it was bad news for Earthlings. He managed to pinpoint two entry points to the artificial network. One was moving, the other not. One was rather weak, the other not. The Time Lord chose the second one and sent the TARDIS to the coordinates. When the time machine abruptly stopped, making a rather distressing asthmatic sound, the Doctor knew that restoring the space time continuum would prove a bit more difficult than anticipated. He welcomed the distraction that meant adventure and checked where he had been landing. He was somewhere underwater in the Baltic Sea. The TARDIS had materialised in a gloomy room, where five people were kept in stasis. The Doctor carefully opened his ship’s door, checking for any sign of an unfriendly presence, but he was alone. Taking his screwdriver from his jacket pocket, he scanned the machine to which the humans were connected, downloading all its data. He couldn’t shake a feeling of emergency. Some powerful forces were at play and when he realised that one of the five people was in fact a well advanced android, he knew that he should be worried.  
Rushing back inside the TARDIS, the Time Lord launched a complete analysis of the information he had gathered.

  
“S.H.I.E.L.D?” He mused when he discovered the identity of four of the people in stasis. “This sounds a lot like U.N.I.T… I can smell trouble...”

  
Focusing his attention on the technological data, the Doctor hacked into the system effectively plugging the TARDIS in what he had learnt was called “the Framework”.

  
It took the Time Lord a few attempts to manage to get his ship to dematerialise and enter the virtual reality. The old girl didn’t enjoy the experience and her companion couldn’t blame her for that.

  
While they were flying, the Doctor tried to locate the four people in stasis, hoping to be able to materialise his ship close to one of them.

  
“Yes!”

  
His scanner had detected one of them. The signal was strong and the Time Lord locked on to it, using it as a beacon for the TARDIS.

  
The ship shook violently as she materialised, sending the Doctor fly to the other end of the console room.

  
“Ooch, that hurt.”

  
His ears were ringing but he guessed it had nothing to do with the abrupt landing.

  
“Stupid, stupid, stupid!” He cursed himself.

  
The Framework was adjusting to his presence, forcing him to become one with it. If he wished to save his free will,

he needed something to block the effects of the virtual reality. It didn’t take him long to find exactly what he was looking for. It looked like a wristwatch, but it was very effective against third parties’ bad influence.

  
“You, old girl, will act as my anchor,” he said out loud, modifying the device accordingly.

  
He had a feeling that the Framework wouldn’t welcome his presence and would force him to adapt to his surroundings. The TARDIS was his back door to reality and he wasn’t keen on losing his only way of escape.

  
His next move was to go to the wardrobe, to change into a more fitting character.

  
“Mister Coulson, here I come.”

  
He looked at his reflection in the mirror and smiled. He was going to fit in the Framework just fine. 


	2. Chapter 2

 The classroom was empty. The teacher was still sitting at his desk, his gaze dreamingly resting on the wall at the far end of the room. It was already dark outside, but he didn’t mind driving home late. No one was expecting him anyway. He preferred the school to his house. He loved being a teacher and witness his students grow up into adulthood. He believed in the importance of education, especially in those dark times. Law and order had to be implemented, reinforced if needed.

 So why did he feel increasingly troubled by the fact that some of his students had been taken from class under a simple suspicion? He took a deep breath and tried to focus on the next day’s lesson.

“Was Hydra Nazi’s”

The question was still hanging in the air. The bold student had probably been arrested by now. You simply don’t ask that kind of questions in front of an entire class… Not if you don’t want to be accused to sympathise with subversives. Still, the teacher felt proud of his student. He was a brave kid. Braver than himself. Experience had taught him that it wasn’t wise to question those who were ruling the world. Better stay in line and enjoy life. But was he enjoying it really? There was something missing in his life and he couldn’t put his finger on it. Who was he kidding? He was a coward who had wasted his life under the fall pretence that he was educating the youth and therefore had played his role.

He stood up quite abruptly, breaking the flow of disturbing thoughts. He quickly gathered his things and decided that it was time to go home and get some rest.

As he was closing the door from his classroom, he heard footsteps in the corridor, coming his way. Instantly worried, he wondered if it was an agent who was coming to pick him up. His hands started shaking and he cursed himself. He needed to act normal if he wanted to convince Hydra that he was no threat. He somehow managed to put a smile on his features, turned around and came face to face with a tall, elder man wearing a ridiculous outfit. They shared the same surprised expression.

“Phillip Coulson?”

“Yes, that’s my name.”

“I’m John Smith, the new janitor.”

“No, you aren’t.”

Coulson was impressed by just how big the stranger’s eyebrows were. Right now, as he was frowning, they look like a weapon of sorts. He was equally surprised at his initial reaction. He wasn’t used to feel that bold. He usually used that authoritarian tone upon his students, but only when the class was dispersed.

“Oh?” Said the stranger. “Last time it worked just fine.”

“What did?” Asked the teacher before thinking.

“Well, the disguise for starters. What gave me away?”

The man seemed so sincere that Coulson couldn’t help himself but reply:  
“Honestly? The name! John Smith? This is lame. Really. You should have come up with something a bit less obvious…”

“Oh. But you see, I quite like this name. I used it since I can’t remember. The trick is to give people a name and a surname then they are happy. Otherwise, they simply don’t understand or start asking questions and I have no time for this.”  
“Well,” said carefully the teacher. “As a matter of fact, you are the one asking questions right now. If your time is so precious, why don’t you go your way and I go mine?”

“Now, you’re starting to ask questions. I like that. They have a purpose. You didn’t even ask what my real name was.”

“I’m not interested. Really. Now if you would excuse me…”

Coulson smiled politely and tried to walk past the strange man, but he blocked his way.

“As a matter of fact, you’re the person I came to see.”

“I’m still not interested.”

The fake janitor looked annoyed:

“And that’s a shame, because you really should be. It is important. In fact, you might be the key to saving the world.”

“Oh! Saving the world? Really? Next thing I know, you’ll call me a super-hero!”

The teacher laughed, but his laughter sounded hollow. There was something very disturbing about the man. In fact, everything he said sounded real. Too real. The fact that he was staring wasn’t helping.

“You’re not real. You’re in an induced reality. Your real body is in stasis and you’re facing a great danger. So the way I see it, there are two options: either you agree to have a proper talk with me, or I force you to have one. As I said before, I don’t have time to waste, because time itself is endangered by your being here.”

Coulson’s eyes opened wide as his mind was trying to process what he has just heard.

“Alright, force it is then.”

The janitor grabbed the teacher’s arm and dragged him along.

“Next stop, the TARDIS. Let me warn you, it’s bigger on the inside!”


End file.
